The traveling hat: Greek painting on the move in Pasolini's Oedipus Rex
Document Type
Book Chapter
Role
Contributor
Published In
Pier Paolo Pasolini for art history and practice: Aesthetics and politics
Publisher
Manchester University Press
First Page
172
Last Page
193
Publication Date
12-2025
Abstract
This essay begins with a reading of the petasos cap in Pasolini’s Oedipus, tracing its visual lineage from Greek vase painting to its quiet yet weighty work on the extremities of bodies in the film. I examine the petasos as an object, an accessory, and an icon, paying particular attention to the ways it comes to instantiate the movement of “antiquity” across time and mediums. I move from the petasos to other headdresses in the film, thinking about their composition, their rectitude, their relation to the subjects which move them and which they guide across time and space. The visual journeys of these hats allow me to explore how Pasolini mobilizes history and myth and how each object represents an engagement with and a theory of antiquity as a concept, a temporal signifier, and as an aesthetic.
Keywords
Art, Architecture, Visual Culture, Petasos, Greek Headdress, Greek vase painting, Oedipus, Pasolini, Classical reception, Greek Myth
Suggested Citation
Shirazi, A. (2025). The traveling hat: Greek painting on the move in Pasolini’s Oedipus Rex. In A. H. Merjian (Ed.), Pier Paolo Pasolini for art history and practice: Aesthetics and politics (pp. 172-193). Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526186157.00014
